COUPLE SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR MASSIVE IDENTITY THEFT SCHEME
According to Dennis Yost at NBCi.com, A Columbus, Ohio couple was sentenced to prison for what is being called a “massive identity theft scheme.” The convicted identity thieves, Kenyetta Williams and her husband, Delmar Williams, of identity theft using information obtained through the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) website.
The identity theft scheme used fraudulent income tax returns to apply for almost $500,000 in tax refund loans from banks. Mrs. Williams was sentenced to 87 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of over $195,000. Mr. Williams was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay restitution of over $10,000.
According to testimony in the plea hearings, the two used stolen personal identifying information, such as names, addresses and Social Security numbers and dates of birth in the identity theft scheme. They obtained much of this personal identifying information from the EDGAR archives, which are maintained by the SEC. The identity theft scheme took from 2006 to 2007. At that time, the EDGAR archives were available to the public online. The EDGAR archives contained the personal identifying information of corporate directors, and also contained the personal identifying information of major corporate shareholders.
A third defendant, Daniel Bossard, 33, also from Ohio, pleaded guilty on September 10, 2010 to the same charges. Mr. Bossard is scheduled for sentencing on February 2, 2011.
Do you belive you have been a victim of identity theft? Were you a shareholder of a publicly traded corporation between the years 2006 and 2007? If yes, then you should contact identity theft attorney Micah Adkins for a free identity theft information packet.